The world now knows about the inhuman treatment meted out to the Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang. There is a global outrage against the horrors the unfortunate people are subjected to in Xinjiang. This in turn has given a new lease of life to Beijing’s aggressive diplomacy. “China’s ‘wolf warrior’ diplomats are back after a brief lull, firing insults over Twitter, smearing critics and suggesting conspiracies,” reports AFP. This time, however, they are likely to face tougher challenges.
‘Wolf warrior diplomacy’ is term denoting unconventionally abrasive language and attitude that Chinese envoys, especially foreign office spokesman Zhao Lijian, have been displaying since 2019. Giving up poise and eloquence, they adopted pugnacity and petulance. The term originated from a Chinese film Wolf Warriors in which Chinese commandoes are do-gooders.
If earlier the triggers were former US president Donald Trump’s tough stance against Beijing, the use of the term “China virus,” and other acts that China hated, now the growing criticism of China’s genocidal actions in Xinjiang and belligerence against Asian nations seems to have revived the wolf warrior diplomats.
It is testimony to Trump’s statesmanship and sagacity that his successor, and bitter foe, Joe Biden has been forced to take on Beijing. This is despite the fact that the present incumbent was supposed to be soft on the dragon because of his earlier statements and the allegations that his son Hunter cut deals in China when Joe was American vice-president under Barack Obama.
Washington’s tough stand was evident a US-China meeting in Alaska last month. This enraged the wolves. The Chinese Communist Party’s senior diplomat Yang Jiechi screamed against “US interference.”
When the wolf warriors get angry, they hurl wild accusations at anybody they don’t approve of. So, in the wake of anti-China sanctions imposed by the European Union, Britain, Canada and the United States over atrocities in Xinjiang, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying alluded to the CIA’s role in conjuring up the narrative to undermine China.
China’s Consul-General in Rio de Janeiro Li Yang resuscitated an old communist abuse: he called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a “boy” and Canada a “running dog of the US.” This is certainly not the language diplomats use, but then wolf warriors are not notorious for nothing.
Vituperation, intemperateness, lies, threats—there is nothing that wolf warriors don’t use. And of course whataboutery. When cornered over the barbarous treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, Hua brandished a picture showing black slaves in the cotton fields of America.
What the CCP thugs don’t realize is the fact that the world has got weary and wary of their shenanigans, villainy, and now wolfishness. This will have consequences for them.